Climate change plays a large role in ocean acidification, which strips away the protective shell of organisms that absorb carbon pollution from the air.
A new study has revealed that the tiny organisms that absorb pollution are losing their ability to form exoskeletons due to climate change.
These organisms are about the size of a grain of sand, and live in the surface waters of 
oceans around the world. They play an important part in the ecological chain, and help prevent global warming from their absorbent covering.
The helpful amobeas transform carbon dioxide from the air into calcium-based shells, and when they die, these shells sink to the ocean floor, storing the CO2 forever.
Due to rising temperature, nutrient runoff from coastal agriculture, and acidification, there has been a decrease in the strength of their shells. These factors inhibit their ability to build sufficient coverings.
The researchers collected one specific species, Globigerina bulloides, once they had drifted to the ocean floor, and compared them to older specimens from hundreds of years ago. The newer shells, they discovered, had about 35% less mass.
It is the last five years that scientists have become aware of ocean acidification and its destruction to the carbon cycle, with balances CO2 in the atmosphere. If this progresses, it could disrupt further sea life with their role in the food chain.
Up to about one half of carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by the world’s oceans. The natural pH (measure of acidity and alkalinity) of the ocean is about 8.2. As this number decreases, the the acidity increases. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts the ocean pH will fall between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the next Century, adding to the current decrease of 0.1 units. [read more]
This is the first study to specifically explore acidification, and has been published in the online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.
Image courtesy of green.yahoo.com
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Kelly, on March 25th, 2009 says:
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